Joy Division: Disorder (1979)Disorder opens Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division’s debut studio album from 1979. Until the last few years I’ve only been vaguely familiar with their story, knowing only “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, and that they became New Order after the death of Ian Curtis. That all changed after seeing this, and now I understand. I hope that’s a good thing. Anton Corbijn’s movie Control helped complete my conversion.

Mick Jagger: Memo From Turner (1970)From the soundtrack to Performance, starring James Fox and Mick Jagger in his acting debut. Performance was a gangster drama, with sequences including violence, drug use, and sex scenes between Jagger and Keith Richards’ girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. Clearly this was no “A Hard Day’s Night”. The film was finally released by Warner Brothers two years after completion following substantial editing toning down some of the more explicit scenes.

Greg Johnson: Don’t Wait Another Day (1995)I wish I could find a better quality video than this, but having searched the entire internet, this is all there is. From the Neil Finn school of pop craftmanship, Greg has written some wonderful songs that deserve a wider audience. My friends insist that he regularly played our local pub when I was at University, but I can’t recall that. This is more a reflection on me than on Greg.

Robert Johnson: Love In Vain (1937)
I’m sure I’m not the first to discover Robert Johnson through covers of his songs. The most famous version of this song is probably by the Rolling Stones on Let it Bleed, but others to have recorded their version include Eric Clapton, Keb’ Mo’ and Madeleine Peyroux. The song was recorded in 1937, released after his death in 1939 and was written for one Willie Mae Powell, interviewed here in 1990. Robert Johnson was one of the original inductees into the Blues Hall Of Fame in 1980. Johnson died in 1938 aged 27, reputably poisoned by the jealous husband of one of his admirers.